A regular journaling practise will help you explore your ideas, examine your emotions, and discover new perspectives.
Reflecting on your experiences you can gain insight into what inspires you, what challenges you, and what makes you tick.
This self-awareness can spark new ideas and help you connect the dots in your creative pursuits.
Let’s say you’re a musician and you’ve been feeling stuck creatively.
You’re not sure what direction to take your music in and you’re struggling to come up with new ideas.
Try using your journal to do some free writing about your thoughts and feelings on the matter.
You might start by asking yourself some questions like:
- What kind of music inspires me?
- What am I trying to communicate with my music?
- What are some of the biggest challenges I’m facing as a musician right now?
As you write, don’t censor yourself. Just let ‘er rip.
Your journal is a safe space, a place where you can put down any kind of thought without judgement.
It’s better to do that than to hold back. If you hold back, you’re preventing yourself from accessing your hidden potential, which is by definition… hidden. That’s why you have to go dig it out.
Write down whatever comes to mind, even if it seems silly or irrelevant.
After you’ve written for a while, take a break and come back to your journal later.
Read over what you’ve written and look for any common themes or ideas that stand out.
Or, if you’re like me and don’t write in order to be able to go back (I mean this literally, I write in illegible long-hand when I know I’m just getting it out of my head) you can always just jot down the most important discoveries somewhere else.
I like to use the back of the journal (using it in reverse) to write down the things I want to remember later – and write it in a way that Future Me can read it.
Or maybe you’re a writer who has been struggling with writer’s block.
You’ve been staring at a blank page for hours, unable to come up with any ideas.
Instead of giving up, try using your journal to clear the blockage.
Start by writing down any random thoughts or phrases that come to mind. Don’t worry about whether they make sense or not. Just keep writing until you run out of steam.
Then, take a break and come back to what you put down later in the day. Review what you’ve written and look for any patterns or themes.
You might be surprised to find a hidden gem that you can use as a starting point for your writing project.
This exercise can help you tap into your creativity and give you a fresh perspective on your creative pursuit.
Next: The magic of Morning Pages >>
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It’s a wild garden, loosely tended and peppered with drafts, ideas, partials and sketches. For less than a single coffee, you get more stories, too! Including the Ravaging Phantom novella.
Stay as long as you like. You can also leave at any time if you don’t know anyone and the music sucks. (Also: there’s no music, just like an existential party.)
